Find & Analyze Data

Correlates of War Project Series

The
Correlates of War (COW) project was founded in 1963 by J. David
Singer, a political scientist at the University of Michigan. The
original and continuing goal of the project has been the systematic
accumulation of scientific knowledge about war. Key principles of the
project include a commitment to standard scientific principles of
replication, data reliability, documentation, review, and the
transparency of data collection procedures.

The COW project seeks to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and
use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international
relations (IR). It also seeks to expand available data for IR research
through 1) a number of ongoing internal projects and 2) encouraging
scholars within the COW community to engage in guided research through
the Data Set Hosting Program.

The COW project has moved to institutionalize the loosely structured
organization of the original project based at the University of
Michigan, while also maintaining the involvement of many collaborators
at widely dispersed locations.

To simultaneously maintain a large number of cross-national and
cross-time datasets, the COW project has implemented a distributed
system of dataset hosting based on the notion of "coordinated
decentralization". The goal is for each major dataset to be adopted by
a "home" institution and a "host" individual who will agree to
maintain a dataset and its related documentation for a period of time,
following guidelines designed to ensure continued consistency with COW
standards.

The project was transferred from the University of Michigan to The
Pennsylvania State University in March 2001. The governance structures
of the project include a director, associated director, and advisory
board.